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Whitefeather History
Whitefeather History History The land of Whitefeather has been around for more than 900 years, but not where it currently resides. Before it was settled and ruled over by King William I, it was an untamed wilderness that stretched for 400 miles from west to east and 900 miles from north to south. It was mostly forest and untamed grasslands that held a wide variety of wildlife and was largely untouched by civilization. Elves didn't live there, but they did hunt there for a time before humans discovered it. Dwarves and gnomes weren't around back then, preferring the mountains that bordered the land to the north. The reason that civilization avoid the area that was known as the Devil's Peninsula was because of what ruled that territory for thousands of years. Dragons. Green dragons ruled the forests, Black dragons ruled the jungles and swamps, Blue and Red dragons ruled what few mountains that were in the area. Those traveling across the peninsula took their lives in their hands when they ventured into the area, as dragons could smell their fear and seek them out to devour those foolish enough to get too close. For many centuries, adventurous bands of orcs, goblins, even giants would try to move into the territory to make villages and camps, but the dragons would kill them down to the last man to reclaim what they felt was rightfully theirs. In the Year 90 of the current calendar, a knight by the name of William left his home in what was then Tar-Stone and traveled east, entering what is now Whitefeather, though then, it had no name other than a moniker of the Devil's Peninsula. He was retired now and looking for a good place to build his keep so that he could settle back and retire fully. He had only been within the borders of the Devil's Peninsula for two days when he was set upon by a blue dragon, out hunting for prey. The dragon underestimated the knight and was slain. William considered this a fluke and continued on his journey. Within seven days of entering the territory, he had slain four dragons. Word traveled fast among the dragonkin in the territory and soon the undisputed ruler of the territory, an ancient red dragon named Amvorixol, went out to find this foolish knight and teach him a lesson. The two met in the southwest part of the land, where the city of Aurora stands. Amvorixol attacked from the skies, but William wore armor that protected him from dragon fire, so he emerged unharmed. The titanic struggle took more than an hour, but in the end, William defeated the ancient red. With their defacto ruler defeated by a lone knight, the dragons of the land retreated to caves, forests and swamps to avoid meeting the same fate as their leader. For his part, William liked this land and felt that he could settle it, with help. He called upon a ranger friend he had met in Kietus by the name of Sindar. Sindar was an elven ranger who believed that the land belonged to no one, so he gave his counsel to William about this. William didn’t seem to believe that he should just let the land rule itself, but he promised Sindar that he would do all he could to allow the land to continue as it had been, meaning, he wouldn’t allow forests to be wiped out and he wouldn’t attempt to reclaim land that was overgrown naturally. With the help of Sindar, William was able to settle most of the unclaimed land and built the city of Aurora in the southwest, making it the capital of the land he called Whitefeather. There is nothing in the historic archives about why he chose this name. Sindar took to the forested areas, acting as a liaison to the new king and watching over the settlement of the land, while William had Aurora built and set up his government. It took him ten years to get the city built and the government set up, by then the land was filling up with settlers who were looking for a new home and a new way of life. What they found was far different from anything they’d known so far. William was a militaristic leader, who believed in a strong chain of command and a rigid set of laws to govern all people. The people didn’t seem to mind this stricter rulership and flourished under his reign, but the times would change soon enough. William the First only got to rule for twenty-one years as his health declined quickly and he died of pneumonia when he was just fifty-one. His son, William II, took the throne and continued his father’s good work, but he relaxed many of the stricter laws his father had put in place, thus easing the burdens of the populace. The problem with this edict was that it opened many doors for criminals to take up residence and refuge in the land, beginning many illegal enterprises. A thieves guild formed. An assassin’s guild formed. Gambling became commonplace, though not public, and a slave trade began to grow. The king was completely unaware of these activities. For fifteen years, these illegal and immoral businesses grew to such enterprises that they began to plot the overthrow of the Whitefeather government and the king. Sindar got wind of this plot and rushed back to Aurora to inform the king, but it was too late. William II was assassinated by a member of the Assassin’s Guild, leaving his young daughter as the new monarch. Being a trusted friend of the king’s family, Sindar took control of the land as the regent to the new Queen and mobilized the Whitefeather guard to squash those responsible for the king’s death. This event would later be called The Cleansing. Hangings were common in those first years of Queen Evelyn’s reign, with Sindar as the regent. The Assassin’s Guild was wiped out completely and gambling was outlawed through royal decree, thus shutting down and destroying all gaming houses in the land. Houses of prostitution were abolished and the slave trade was crushed by Sindar and his crack unit of rangers who acted as spies and royal guard until Evelyn could reach the age of ascension. It only took Sindar and his men three years to clean the land back up to where it stood when William I was king. By then, Evelyn had reached the age of twenty and ascended to the throne of Whitefeather. The criminal element that had found itself under fire, hunted by Sindar and his men, would not go without a fight. They laid low, conducting much of their activities underground or just across political borders to avoid persecution, until they felt that the heat was finally off of them and could return to Whitefeather and work under the radar of the government. With Evelyn now of age, Sindar returned to his forests, taking his friends with him so she could rule as she saw fit. With the ranger and his crack unit out of the way, the criminal element moved back in to test the new Queen. Evelyn heard rumors of their activities and sent her royal guard to handle it, but they failed in their mission as the criminals bribed them to turn a blind eye to their activities, but reported to the Queen that the problem was taken care of. When the rumors persisted, Evelyn knew she needed help with this problem. Her help came in the form of a royal wizard by the name Coranthar. Coranthar wasn’t an archmage of tremendous power, but he was formidable enough to handle the job. What he brought to the crown was the ability to divine information through his magic. He couldn’t launch wicked fireballs, but he could eavesdrop on criminals from hundreds of miles away and this made him invaluable to Queen Evelyn. Soon, the royal guard was making regular visits to underground gaming houses and warehouses that held slaves bound for destinations unknown, confiscating gold and items in the name of the crown. They freed captives that were enslaved by the traders and they beheaded criminals on the spot, all based on Coranthar’s findings. Armed with her new wizard, Evelyn took back control of the realm and passed some new royal laws to prevent the criminal element from returning. The Artifact Ten years after Queen Evelyn reached the age of ascension, her royal wizard, Coranthar, used his considerable divination magic to locate an object that would forever change their future, the lost Staff of Baltharan. Baltharan was a powerful druid who once protected the forests of the land. He fashioned a staff from Ironwood and enchanted it with powerful druidic spells, but his deity, Uller, blessed the staff with even greater power for his chosen druid. One of the abilities it had was that those who touched the staff and spoke the command word would never age. Coranthar located the staff and retrieved it for them to use. Now, he and his Queen, who he had grown to love, would never age. Though Coranthar loved Evelyn, she didn’t feel the same way about him, seeing him as a trusted advisor only. Coranthar didn’t let this alter his plan to keep his Queen in power for a very long time to come. Only they knew of the staff and its power, and he aimed to keep it that way. The Great Sundering In the Year 825, the two were dining in the castle when the entire land was rocked by the first fiery mountains that struck the continent of Grendoth. Thinking they were under attack from a foreign source, they went right to the basement of the castle to stay safe. For seven full days, the bombardment didn’t let up and they feared the worst, that the kingdom was lost. At the end of the seventh day, the quakes stopped and they finally ventured out to see what had transpired. Large rocks and boulders were strewn about the city, some buildings destroyed, but otherwise, the city of Aurora stood. Coranthar went to his chambers and used his crystal ball to scry upon the land. What he found shocked him. To the north, where the dwarven home was located was gone. Everything around them was gone. Whitefeather now floated on the sea without any borders with any other realms. They had no warning at all. The reason they received no warning about the Great Sundering is because neither Evelyn, nor Coranthar, worshiped any of the gods of the land, therefore, they weren’t told to evacuate. Why Whitefeather was spared is still unknown. For the next seventy-five years, Whitefeather existed in name only. The northern part of the land was in ruin from falling boulders from the Dwarven Mountains to the north, wiping out whole cities and some forests. The populace was in a total panic over what happened and chaos reigned supreme during this time. Refugees came from the north, seeking safety and shelter after losing their homes, villages and cities and Evelyn did what she could to provide for them. It was a trying time for her kingdom. Eyewitnesses told of the rain of fire from the skies for seven days, destroying everything around Whitefeather, and how those fireballs caused the dwarven mountains to come raining down on them. Traumatized by the event, Queen Evelyn became paralyzed with doubt, not knowing what to do to make her kingdom whole again. Coranthar tried to snap her out of it, but she was unable to make solid decisions anymore. The Great Quake Seventy-five years after the Great Sundering, a major earthquake on the planet caused the nation of Whitefeather to break free of the ocean’s floor and begin to drift southward. Coranthar was able to discern this fact, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Less than a fortnight after this quake, the land came to rest, causing another earthquake, just seven days sail from Greyfeather Island. Coranthar was able to scry and find the island nation, but he withheld this information from his Queen. He knew she wouldn’t be able to reach out to the other island nation and that she might even lose her mind over the knowledge. If she knew that her beloved country was now an island resting next to Greyfeather Island, she might go mad with grief, so he kept this knowledge to himself. What Coranthar didn’t expect was for the King of Greyfeather to come to their shores. In the Year 905, just two years after the final quake, King Christopher arrived in Whitefeather with a team of adventurers in tow. They came to Aurora to find out more about the island, but their arrival was fortuitous, as the Black Orcs of Yestari had begun to lay siege to the land, attempting to conquer it. A wizard named Basquel and his companion, Velmir, arrived at Aurora just in time to intercept one such attack and they took this information back to Christopher. He waged war on the Black Orcs and drove them back to the city of Yestari in the northeast, ending the attacks, and this seemed to snap Evelyn out of her stupor. When he told her that the Black Orcs had agreed to stop raiding, Evelyn returned to her old self, going right to work on rebuilding her realm. Within five years, Aurora had been restored to its former glory and new cities and towns began to spring up again. Commerce improved after a trade treaty with King Christopher and life was slowly returning to normal. The agreement Christopher made with the Black Orcs was broken just eight years later, when a new chieftain took control of the tribe and began to raid again. Christopher returned to Whitefeather at Evelyn’s request, along with several heroes, and put down the orc uprising once more. This time, he demanded a non-aggression treaty between the orcs and the crown of Whitefeather, which the orcs had no choice but to sign. The Last 50 Years Queen Evelyn has made great strides in rebuilding the land, but there are some glaring omissions. Though trade is good between Whitefeather and her allies in Greyfeather, she refused to trade with King Debren, the new king of Greyfeather. To her, he betrayed the kingdom by aiding Vecter in staging a bloodless coup, so she cut ties with the crown. Instead, she formed new alliances with the dwarves of Greyfeather, as well as the gnomes, and the Ty’larenthar elves. She has a treaty of trade with Falfarren and with Portaraine, as well. This has added to the coffers of her kingdom and helped with the rebuilding process. So far, she has remained unmarried, therefore, there is no heir to her throne, but she has signed a pact with Coranthar saying that the wizard will be the one to choose the new monarch, should something unforeseen happen to her. Life In Whitefeather The economy in Whitefeather has vastly improved since Christopher drove the Black Orcs back to their city in the northeast. Farmers were able to plant crops, merchants were able to sell goods and skilled craftsmen were able to make those goods. A mint was created so they could mint their own currency there, but it is run by the Rock Gnomes and this causes some delays in production due to their insatiable desire for everything to be modern and perfect. Every month, Evelyn must meet with the Master Minter of the Royal Mint to discuss his ideas for changes and improvements. It is not her favorite thing to do. That being said, there is a vast amount of undiscovered wealth in the land that lays waiting for some hearty adventuring party to discover. This means that Whitefeather has much untapped potential. Mineral resources in Whitefeather have surpassed those in Greyfeather now that the dwarves and gnomes are back to mining again. With the orcs under control, they were able to re-open the mines and start to return to their livelihood again. Around the Year 972, during a deep dwarven mining expedition, they discovered several precious metal veins that would take centuries to fully mine. Mithral, Adamantite and Blacksteel veins were in great abundance down there and the dwarves have laid claim to them all. In the Year 1006, the Dark Alliance made an attempt to revitalize the orcs, convincing them to resume their raids. They did so for six months, until they arrived at the Valshire Mountains in the central part of Whitefeather. There they were met with dragonborn knights in service to Queen Evelyn. She did not send them, they chose to take the orcs on themselves. The orcs were crushed under the onslaught of these draconic creatures and driven back to the City of Yestari to lick their wounds. Now, they only raid roadways with caravans when they’re sure the dragonborn knights aren’t around to fight them. In the Year 1010, as predicted, the portals to Faerun closed in the Valshire Mountains and the final Dragonborn and Tieflings entered Whitefeather. The populations of those two races now number around a thousand and they still reside in the mountain range, either within the caves there or in the shadow of the peaks. Some have left the realm for greener pastures in Greyfeather, but very few, according to reports. They have grown to like Whitefeather very much and they are reluctant to leave what they know. Though they haven’t formally met with Queen Evelyn, the dragonborn are solid supporters of the Queen and her realm. The Tieflings have no quarrel with the crown, but aren’t as rabid about defending her lands as their dragonborn counterparts. Dragonborn and Tieflings are quite common and well known in Whitefeather, and many live outside of their original communities, living among the other races comfortably. Though some Tiefling are viewed with suspicion due to their demonic heritage, most are viewed in a neutral way and treated with the same respect as the other races. Magical Discovery In the Year 990, a wizard by the name of Melalaine, made a huge discovery, by accident. During a walking trip from his home in the Torwood Forest in the northern part of the land to Aurora in the south, he happened upon an old abandoned wizard’s tower. Being the curious sort, Melalaine chose to investigate the tower and discovered a treasure trove of magical items and magical research done by a wizard who had died centuries before and left the tower unguarded. How it survived as long as it did without someone else discovering is unknown. Seeing this as a chance to learn more about his craft, Melalaine, who preferred to be called ‘Laine’, remained within the tower for nearly ten years, studying each piece of magical equipment and pouring over magical tomes. When he was finished, he took his gains to the crown, who then sold the items to a merchant who paid handsomely for the items. This merchant began selling the magical items to any who could afford them and soon the land was magic rich. His shop is located in Aurora and it caters to all who have the coins to buy his wares. By doing this, the Queen inadvertently created a glut of magic items in the land that can’t be reversed. Magic items became commonplace and some were even replicated by other magic using entities, creating more of a glut. Laine also began to create items based on his research and sold those to the merchant so he could sell them at his shop. Thankfully, this merchant is the only one authorized to sell magic items, but by now, it’s too little, too late. The influx of magic hasn’t caused any major issues with the kingdom or its inhabitants, but it has created a market for higher magic among the adventurers of the realm. The Economy Whitefeather’s economy has finally reached par with Greyfeather’s economy, though trade between them is still a requirement to get all of the essential goods they need. Even though the land make a fortune in gold from the sale of the magical items that flow freely through Whitefeather, there is little in the way of inflation of prices there. Treat all purchases and sales in the land the same as they would be done in Greyfeather. NPC Classes In keeping with the high fantasy feel of Whitefeather, there are some NPC classes that can be found and interacted with here that players should be aware of. They are more for support of players than they are adventuring types. One such classes is called the Psychic. They are more for divination and location for the players to utilize and can be found in some larger cities in the land. Another is the Timelord. The Timelord is also good with divination, but they can also be used to help players with certain projects that would require some manipulation of time. The Shaman NPC class can also be found here. Again, divination and information gathering is their strong suit and can help players with those things. Another NPC class that will be more readily available, though not a strange class, is the Arch Mage. They are moderately high level wizards who can enchant items for players for a price. The price for such enchantments are very expensive. Below is a chart giving some idea as to how much it would cost to have something enchanted or made from scratch. Training Players will need to take into account the time required to train new skills here. Before the characters can use new abilities of their class, they will need to take time off to train those abilities. When your class abilities increase, you must go back to your trainer. The wisest course of action when choosing a class is to centralize the location so that you don’t have to travel for weeks to train and weeks to come back to the party. Each time you train, you will have to pay your trainer for the new training you receive and the cost will vary, depending on the level you are training. You only have to train when you gain a new class ability, not every level! Since you gain class abilities at various times depending on the class you choose, the cost will be determined by the number of times you need to train. Some classes train at 2nd, some at 3rd, some get their abilities at 1st level, so it will all depend on how often you have to go train. Training Costs * 1st Training 500 gp * 2nd Training 5,000 gp * 3rd Training 25,000 gp * 4th Training 50,000 gp * 5th Training or more 100,000 gp each This might seem high to players, but in a high fantasy world, gold is plentiful, and this will be the case in Whitefeather. The land is old and largely unexplored, so there is treasure aplenty to be found and claimed.